The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 24, 2024

Portrait of a Woman

Portrait of a Woman

c. 1665
(Dutch, 1617–1681)
Framed: 87.5 x 77 x 7 cm (34 7/16 x 30 5/16 x 2 3/4 in.); Unframed: 63.3 x 52.7 cm (24 15/16 x 20 3/4 in.)

Did You Know?

The pair to this painting (in the National Gallery, London), depicts a man in equally fashionable dress.

Description

Every detail of his subject’s elaborate costume is skillfully recorded: glittering jewels, filmy lace, knots of ribbons, heavy black silk, and shimmering white satin. The ability to recreate satin’s luster was Gerard ter Borch’s particular trademark: he used fine flicks and sweeps of the brush, occasionally adding and wiping away tiny bits of paint to make the white fabric appear to shine. Ter Borch offset the profusion of costume detail by deliberately isolating the figure within a spare setting, allowing us to appreciate the woman’s cool composure. Although her identity is not known, she was undoubtedly a member of the wealthy Dutch elite.
  • (presumably) Jan Jacob [Jean-Jacques de] Faesch [1755-1831], Amsterdam)
    1833
    (de Vries … Roos, Amsterdam, sale Jean-Jacques de Jean-Jacques de Faesch, July 3, 1833, no. 56 [“Een prachtig gekleed Dame, staande bij een tafel en stoel, beide met rood bekleedsel”, canvas, 6p 3d x 5p 1d; fl. 90, to Chaplin or Chaplen or Chapplaen])
    1877
    F. Austen, London
    [M. Knoedler & Co., New York];
    by 1923
    Elisabeth Severance Prentiss, Cleveland, 1923, by bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1944.
  • Graves, Algernon. Century of Loan Exhibitions 1813-1912. London: Graves, 1913. Mentioned: vol. 3, p. 1301
    Hofstede de Groot, C. P. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century. 8 vols London: Macmillan and Co, 1908-. Mentioned: vol. 5, p. 78, no. 220; p. 128, no. 416f.
    Catalogue of the Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition of the Cleveland Museum of Art: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition : June Twenty-Sixth to October Fourth 1936. [Cleveland, Ohio]: [Cleveland Museum of Art], 1936. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 97, pl. LIII, cat. no. 245
    Hannema, Frans. Gerard Terborch. Amsterdam: "De Gulden ster", 1943. Mentioned: p. 101; Reproduced: p. 163
    Catalogue of the Elisabeth Severance Prentiss Collection : Bequest of Elisabeth Severance Prentiss, 1944. [Cleveland]: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1944. Reproduced: p. [19], Plate VII, cat. no. 15; Mentioned: p. 28, cat. no. 15 archive.org
    Francis, Henry A. "Paintings in the Prentiss Bequest," The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 31, no. 6 (June, 1944): 88-89. Reproduced: p. 86
    Paintings in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1945. Reproduced: p. 23
    Great Portraits by Famous Painters. Exh. cat. Minneapolis, Minn.: Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1952.
    Coe, Nancy. The History of the Collecting of European Paintings and Drawings in the City of Cleveland. Thesis M.A. Oberlin College, 1955. Mentioned: v. 2, p. 217, no. 22; Reproduced pl. XLIII
    The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 441 archive.org
    Gudlaugsson, S. J. Geraert ter Borch. 2 vols The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1959-60. Mentioned: vol. 1, p. 140, 337, vol. 2, p. 190; Reproduced: vol. 2 fig. 194
    Masters of Seven Centuries: Paintings and Drawings from the 14th to 20th Century; Loan Exhibition for the Benefit of the Wellesley College Faculty Salary Advancement Fund, March 1 to 31, 1962. Exh. cat. New York: Wildenstein, 1962. Mentioned: cat. no. 21
    Gimpel, René. Journal d'un Collectionneur, Marchand de Tableaux. [Paris]: Calmann-Lévy, 1963. Mentioned: p. 236
    Payne, Blanche. History of Costume: From the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century. New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1965. Reproduced: p. 398
    Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 126 archive.org
    Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 126 archive.org
    Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 162 archive.org
    Wilson, William Harry. Dutch Seventeenth Century Portraiture, the Golden Age. Exh. cat. Sarasota, FL: The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, 1980. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 23, cat. no. 10
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Catalogue of Paintings, Part 3: European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1982. Mentioned: p. 222; Reproduced: p. 223
    Tortora, Phyllis G., and Keith Eubank. A Survey of Historic Costume. New York, NY: Fairchild Publications, 1989. Reproduced: p. 157, fig. 10.10
    MacLaren, Neil, and Christopher Brown. The Dutch School, 1600-1900. 2 vols. London: National Gallery Publications, 1991. Mentioned: vol. 1, p. 39-40
    Chong, Alan. European & American Painting in the Cleveland Museum of Art: A Summary Catalogue. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1993. Reproduced: p. 18
    Kettering, Alison McNeil. "Gerard Ter Borch's Portraits for the Deventer Elite." Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art 27, no. 1/2 (1999): 46-69. Mentioned: p. 51, no. 9
    Wheelock, Arthur K.. Gerard Ter Borch. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 2004. Reproduced: p. 148
    Exhibition of Works by the Old Masters and Deceased Masters of the British School. Exh. Cat. London: Royal Academy of Arts, in association with William Clowes and Sons, 1877.
    Mentioned: p. 49, no. 277 www.royalacademy.org.uk
  • Rembrandt exhibition - Reciprocal Loan. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO (organizer) (October 30, 2011-September 16, 2012).
    Gerard ter Borch. National Gallery of Art, Landover, MD (November 7, 2004-January 30, 2005); The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (February 28-May 22, 2005).
    Dutch Seventeenth-Century Portraiture, the Golden Age. John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, FL (organizer) (December 4, 1980-February 8, 1981).
    Dutch Art and Life in the Seventeenth Century. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (July 10-September 2, 1973).
    Exhibition of Works by the Old Masters and Deceased Masters of the British School. London: Royal Academy of Arts, 1877, cat. no. 277.
    The Prentiss Bequest. Cleveland Museum of Art, 1944, cat. no. 15.
    Old Masters from Midwestern Museums. Grand Rapids (Michigan) Art Gallery, December 1, 1948-January 2, 1949.
    Dutch Painting: The Golden Age. Metropolitan Museum of Art (October 28-December 15, 1954); Toledo (Ohio) Museum of Art (January 2-February 12, 1955); Art Gallery of Toronto (Canada) (February 19-March 25, 1955), cat. no. 11.
    Masters of Seven Centuries. Wildenstein & Co, New York. (February 27-March 31, 1962), cat. no. 21.
    Juxtapositions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (September 11-October 10, 1965).
    Masters of Seven Centuries. Wildenstein & Co., New York, NY (February 27-March 31, 1962).
    Seventeenth Century Dutch Paintings and Drawings. Akron Art Museum (organizer) (October 10-November 11, 1956).
    Great Portraits by Famous Painters. Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN (organizer) (November 11-December 23, 1952).
    35th Anniversary Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 20-September 30, 1951).
    The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 26-October 4, 1936).
  • {{cite web|title=Portrait of a Woman|url=false|author=Gerard ter Borch|year=c. 1665|access-date=24 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1944.93